I might as well continue with the theme of Star Wars Canon tales that were told and what better way to end this long rant with the latest game from EA the-game-company-that-killed-Westwood-Studios-Pandemic-Bioware-Maxis-Bullfrog-Dice-to-name-but-a-few. Ignoring the controversy stirred up before the game even launched with regards to the online multiplayer portion, did you know this game had a single-player story driven campaign?

Spoilers ahead for those who haven't played the game or read about it elsewhere.

It starts some time just before the Battle of Endor. Iden Versio, the commander of Inferno Squad, is held captive aboard a Mon Cal cruiser and, after escaping with the help of her handy ID10 seeker droid- which is actually pretty much one of the coolest things to be made canon in a while- manages to destroy sensitive information acquired by the Rebellion that would have warned them about the trap the Emperor had laid for them at Endor's forest moon. She escapes to the Corvus, an Imperial Raider-class cruiser (read: corvette) which appears to have hanger space enough for at least 2 TIE Fighters or 2 X-Wings (more on that later).

The battle of Endor plays out as one expects except here, Inferno squad is tasked with helping protect the shield generator. Obviously they're too late to stop its destruction or the destruction of the Second Death Star but this is were the story takes an interesting turn as continues the story past the stations destruction and shows the immediate Imperial response, Inferno Squad's desperate bid to flee the forest moon of Endor along with the other Imperial Survivors, regroup at their ship and escape the system with the rest of the Imperial fleet.

What happens after, a messenger, one of several special droids the Emperor had built and programmed, apparently having anticipated the possibility of things going awry, either at Endor or elsewhere, gives instructions to Admiral Garrick Versio (yes, there's a relation to Iden, he's her father) to initiate operation Cinder. Iden is tasked with recovering a bunch of satellites that are instrumental to Operation Cinder. These satellites are climate change devices and are eventually used against an Imperial world. Iden is outraged and, along with most of Inferno Squad and, presumably the crew aboard the Corvus, surrender themselves to the Rebellion rather than continue serving the Empire.

Fighting for the other side, they put an end to Operation Cinder before being involved with the showdown at Jakku. I gloss over that part because I was disappointed at the turn of events, Inferno Squad going rogue and siding with the Rebellion. I had hoped it would be the tale of soldiers who fought for the Empire in spite of the atrocities the Empire committed, still believing in the cause if not the method. The jaded part of me thinks the story was designed to give the player exposure to everything they would be encountering in multiplayer, ie, the ability to pilot all the Empire ships and the Rebellion ships so they had to have the narrative fit that end goal.

Or maybe I'm just longing for a really decent story that actually portrays the other side of the Empire.

If nothing else, it was cool to see the Raider-class in full CGI mode (versus the various artworks and Fantasy Flight Games model of it). Although, let's be honest here, who wouldn't want to pilot this ship:

All that said, I'm still for taking the Star Wars license away from EA.